Africa-Press – Botswana. When filling annual returns businesses may be required to also file audited financial statements, Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Major General Pius Mokgware says.
Speaking at Business Botswana one-day symposium on the living wage in Gaborone recently, he said it was critical to have that information to provide government with crucial information needed for monitoring the sector.
Major General Mokgware said government would ensure that business timely filed annual returns. He said companies registered with CIPA must present their returns or risked legal consequences.
He said filling annual returns ensured that companies paid a fair share to the system after profit, adding government would compute data for businesses to account even for the number of personnel in their employ. He said the ministry would closely monitor numbers of employees against filled returns to ensure total compliance.
On other issues, he said sentiments raised by the business community were valid and had to be discussed for them to contribute to the clarion call to pay the P4 000 living wage, adding that creating employment and living wage were intertwined.
“As the business community, what is the appropriate profit you want to make yourselves? You want to make 150 per cent profit. Do you want the profit that will only sustain your living or to make sure that the business grows?’’ he quizzed.
He further said some entities doing business with government were charging exorbitant amounts thereby a legitimate government demand for annual returns. Major General was concerned that some businesses had large foreign staff complement even for jobs locals could do.
“We are not against foreigners. However, in some instances some organisations have more foreigners than Batswana. That is wrong. If you are to employ foreigners, I will kindly ask you to write to us to say, I have employed 10 local Batswana and I would like to employ three foreigners. Then we look at that percentage and say that is fine,” he said.
He said the ministry was working on improving turnaround on processing investors and employees’ permits. He said one challenge to address was productivity in the ministry, if services were to improve. He cautioned staff against sleeping on the job, which he said, was a summary dismissal offence.
He said for Botswana to be among the best, there was need for feedback from the business community on how to enhance and improve especially government services. He said government created a conducive environment for businesses to grow and same for workers to do their best where they served.
Mr Mokgware said low wages was a threat to national security, when people struggle to make a living resorted to thieving. He said low wages might depict a country unsafe for tourism and investment with workers’ continuous demonstrations for wages.
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